Happy Birthday, Red Barber

Hall of Famer Red Barber, who called play-by-play of Brooklyn Dodger games on the radio from 1939-53, would have celebrated his 100th birthday today. He was born Walter Lanier Barber had the distinction of broadcasting baseball’s first night game on May 24, 1935 in Cincinnati and the sport’s first televised contest on August 26, 1939 in Brooklyn. Barber was born on February 17, 1908, and he passed away on October 22, 1992. He also served as a mentor to Vin Scully, for which we all owe him a great deal.

You can listen to a tribute to Barber on the front of dodgers.com in the rotating panel.

Also, I just picked up Joe Torre’s autobiography, Chasing the Dream, and the word "Dodgers" makes its first appearance 185 words into the book. Torre refers to the World Series game in 1956 which he attended as a 16-year-old and saw Don Larsen pitch a perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

A pretty quiet day on the baseball front. All workouts went as scheduled and the front office is going to head out at 5 p.m. for a game of football.

14 Comments

I was reading that Torre would suggest that Martin get a day off a week preferable the day before or after a scheduled off day. That’s sounds good and I suppose they’ll make some ajustments as the season rolls along. Like his skipping the day off sometimes. I just found out that Kemp’s agent Dave Stewart & the former Dodger pitcher are one and the same. I’ll never forget his performance in the’81 WS & all through that time. The Red Barber days when the team was in Brooklyn are great memories which I mentioned on another thread and in Dodger Thoughts. Speaking about Larsen’s perfect game. I’ll never forget that day, rooting against it with all my heart. One thing when Dale Mitchell struck out to end the game he argued & waived his arms in the air but that was cut out of the film, you don’t see it anymore. The Yankee people proberbly did that.

Rather than re-writing my RED BARBER comments. If anyone cares to. See “Dodger Thoughts” blog. The T-Shirt thread on 2/16 # 54. I would like to add I followed this team the best I could the past 60 years and Vin Scully has helped me do it more than anyone else with his broadcasts. I also remember broadcasts coast to coast shortly after they left. I don’t know if they were live or recorded.

The first bet I ever lost was on the Dodgers in the ’56 series. My dad’s business partner and I bet a buck a game and I thought it was going good when the Bums were ahead, but of course the Yanks caught them and won it with Larson’s perfecto. We watched that one on TV and the partner didn’t make me pay up. I was pretty small and he let me slide.

True momoracci – based on last spring you never know what the knuckleheads will do. If ever there was a guy deserving to make the team out of spring last year, it was Loney. I also hope that Torre isn’t so schizophrenic in his day-to-day line-ups as Grittle. Never seen anyone bench guys after going 3 for 4, or rest 2-3 regulars on the same day like Grady did on a consistant basis.

Getting off the dead horse topic and something new. How about Koufax sliding in and out? One of my biggest thrills was getting a picture and and autograph at the 2005 Fall fantasy camp with Koufax. Again no one knew he was coming but he stopped by to see Willie Davis and the boys at the November camp.

As mastercard says “priceless”. He was a class act he stood there and signed autographs and took pictures with us maniacs until everyone that was there got one.

The only negative is that is the only camp of the 4 that my father did not attend.

Honestly, this topic NEEDS belaboring — the team’s success depends on the right decision being made. Not only today, but in a few years when guys like Ethier hit free agency and they remember what it was like to be shuffled around like a deck of cards.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.